28 December 2014

Thieves, vandals, and "The Interview"

Our house got robbed last weekend. The thieves took generic electronics - computer monitors, TV, an old laptop computer - but also the bone necklace that I made for my wife years ago. We made simple mistakes in our security arrangements, mistakes that are easily and cheaply fixed.But I think of the poor chump who got at most a couple hundred dollars from messing up my house, who put themselves and their family's welfare at such risk for such a little bit, how pitiful he or she must be.I had a similar reaction to the Sony hacking. The fools running North Korea are in a desperate situation of their own making, without a clue as to what to do beyond vandalizing a movie company's computers in the lamest attempt at protecting their honor.The feeling was accentuated further when we rented "The Interview" on Youtube (I was getting stir-crazy). It's a stupid film. A government actually got upset about this? And bothered to react? It makes the film into a tragedy, and not only for all the people that were injured by the vandals, but for the vandal.Then I read that people have been viewing pirated versions of the movie. People who watch pirated movies are stealing, but in this case, they're also siding with the antagonist of the film.